An 11-year-old boy who went magnet fishing with his grandpa managed to reel in two sniper rifles out of a Florida canal.
Grandpa Duane Smith, 61, wanted to strengthen his bond with his 11-year-old grandson by going magnet fishing at a South Miami-Dade canal on Sunday but was stunned by what they caught, according to the Miami Herald.
Having stumbled across a YouTube video about magnet fishing, Smith thought it would be a great activity and so the pair dropped their five-pound magnet into the C-102 canal in Princeton.
While the two were hoping to find something valuable hiding in the canal, they were stunned to discover two .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles, according to the news outlet.
After just five minutes, the dynamic duo fished out the first of the two sniper rifles. Smith told the Miami Herald: "I figured, since it was our first time, this was beginner's luck."
Keen to continue in the hopes they would find even more unusual items, the pair managed to land another catch, an identical sniper rifle. Both sniper rifles were not loaded, did not have any ammunition and their serial numbers on the lower receivers had been filed off.
Smith, a former army infantry officer, told the outlet: "Whoever did this is not your run-of-the-mill criminal."
He called the Miami-Dade County Police Department who sent down two officers to retrieve the sniper rifles.
Detective Christopher Thomas said the department would likely take some time to determine whether the two weapons had been used in a crime, the Miami Herald reported.
He told the outlet: "Judging by the photo, those have been there for a while. That said, it will take some time for the weapons to end up at our forensics lab. Once there, they will be processed."
Smith believed the guns had not been in the water for a long time and said they had been wrapped in plastic. He scraped away most of the corrosion after 30 minutes.
The grandfather told the Miami Herald: "It looked like it was something that someone would want to come back for."
Newsweek has contacted the Miami-Dade County Police Department for comment.
Last week, a fisherman in Florida made a grisly discovery after he reeled in a dead body from a lake, according to CBS affiliate WTSP.
As the fisherman reeled in the gravy catch, he realized it appeared to be a person and called the police to Lake Stella. When officers arrived, they found the dead body was that of a 40-year-old man who lived in the area, according to the network.
